RACHELLE FERRELL-RAHSAAN PATTERS

RACHELLE FERRELL, RAHSAAN PATTERSON and LEDISI

DAR Constitution Hall – March 20, 2004

RACHELLE FERRELL, RAHSAAN PATTERSON and LEDISI came to Washington DC’s DAR Constitution Hall on the evening of March 20, 2004 and just spewed dulcet tones all over the place. All three were in great voice; RACHELLE and LEDISI, especially, were at the top of their game.

LEDISI opened the show. Wearing a long white wrap-around skirt with a black leotard and green sash around her waist, she came onstage and kicked her sandals off immediately. As she had done at the Warner last year, she did whole show barefoot. She was accompanied by her writing/producing partner Sundra Manning on Hammond B3 and keyboard, 2 backup singers, drummer and bass player.

She started out with “Feeling Orange, But Sometimes Blue” (title track from her second CD) introducing it by saying that people had cussed her out for not doing this one last time. She followed that with the Rufus & Chaka Khan song, “I’m a woman (I’m a Backbone)” and Sundra played a kick-a** solo on the Hammond B3. When it was over, LEDISI said, “I know we are scaring some people in here.” Only then did I figure that much of the audience was seeing her live show for the first time and I maybe they weren’t sure exactly how to take her.

LEDISI just kept doing her thing though with “Hold On To Love” from the Soulsinger CD. Before going into “Stop Livin’ In Your Head,” she said, “I see a lot of new people lookin’ at me like ‘what the hell?’” LEDISI is a scream. Somebody up in the nose-bleed section to the right of the stage kept yelling something to LEDISI to which she kept replying, “I got you, baby! I’ll do it, just hold on a minute!”

She then asked if she could sing some new stuff from her upcoming CD and did a funky upbeat number which I think was called “Do You” followed by the Michael Jackson/Stevie Wonder tune “Can’t Help It.”

What happened next was one of those moments of truth that you hear about and wish you had been there to experience for yourself. LEDISI sang The Beatles’ tune “Yesterday” – starting in Paul McCartney’s octave for the first verse, then moving up an octave for the second. Simply put, it brought the house down! She sang it with not only her whole voice, but her whole heart, soul and feet! If the “new people” LEDISI referred to earlier didn’t get her at first, then by the end of the second verse of “Yesterday” she had the whole house in the palm of her hand. She received a well-deserved standing ovation from the DAR crowd.

At this point she was getting the “wrap-it-up” sign from offstage, so she finished her show with “Take Time” including her day-at-the-office pantomime/scat on the closing vamp and got a second rousing standing ovation.

RAHSAAN PATTERSON

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE RAHSAAN PATTERSON’s singing and his recordings. Though RAHSAAN sang really well tonight, he didn’t seem as prepared as he had the first two times I saw him live. There didn’t seem to be a set list and it would take him awhile to call the next tune. This, obviously, ate up most of his time, so he only did a few songs. Also, he was noticeably unhappy with the sound onstage which, despite a little feedback here and there, was apparently not as good as what the audience was hearing. Overall, his energy was really low and laidback and he kind of brought the audience down from the high LEDISI had left us with.

He started his show with a new song that I think was called “Always Find Myself Thinking About You.” This was followed by “Come Over” from the Rahsaan Patterson CD, which he alternated with a funky version of the Michael Jackson tune “Rock With You”. That worked really well.

Next up was “So Right” from the Love In Stereo CD. There was this echo effect on his vocals every time he would do ad lib solos. The effect was cool at first, but after the first couple of times, it got annoying. He followed that with “It Ain’t Love,” “Stop By,” (my personal favorite) and “Friend of Mine.” Then he got the cut-off sign, said something like, “Well, that’s it, ya’ll” and strolled offstage.

RACHELLE FERRELL

I haven’t decided yet if I prefer hearing RACHELLE in smaller venues like Blues Alley or larger ones like DAR. The overall vibe is different but I don’t know if her performance at either is necessarily better than at the other. But, I digress…

Headliner RACHELLE FERRELL entered the DAR stage wearing a long black satin skirt and a black top with a single strap that ran from the center of the neckline over one shoulder. Like LEDISI, RACHELLE also kicked off her shoes immediately and did the entire show barefoot - something I’d never seen her do before. She was accompanied by the same band she had at Blues Alley in January – keyboard, guitar, bass and drums.

She was hearing some feedback onstage early on and sang a little in the same octave frequency until it was corrected. Only the “fierce” can do that.

She opened the show with “Satisfied” from the Individuality CD and a prayer of thanksgiving and followed that with “I Forgive You” and “I Can Explain” at grand piano. Her first few notes of “I Can Explain” brought tears to my eyes. I was thinking maybe it was just me, but then she got happy on the ending vamp and stomped around for awhile which was what I felt like doing. So, I guess whatever it was, was in the air.

Back at the piano, RACHELLE did “Run To Me” which made my friend KanArey VERY happy since EVERY SINGLE TIME we’ve gone to see RACHELLE, KanArey has wished she would sing it. This night, KanArey finally got her song complete with that stratosphere note in the bridge that she holds forever on the ‘ooh’ sound. She followed this with another tune she doesn’t usually have in the show, “Why You Wanna Mess It All Up,” this time playing the Roland keyboard.

RACHELLE was all about pulling out new tricks this evening. Her next songs she did accompanying herself on acoustic/electric guitar. As she mounted a stool down center stage, she joked about how when you were a kid in church and had to sing, but you might not have been very good yet and the people in the congregation would say stuff like “Let Him use you” and “That’s alright.” She said that she wanted the audience to have that frame of mind as she played the guitar. Actually, for someone who just started playing guitar last year, she did some really nice pickin’. She did two pieces here, “Never Givin’ Up” – a funky, upbeat kind of honky tonk vibe and a really nice ballad called “Courage To Care.”

Now a brief word about rude-a** audiences. When “they” cut out arts programs in schools, they not only greatly diminished the opportunity for truly talented children to be trained, they also created a group of people who don’t know how to listen and appreciate truly artistic expression; i.e. how to be a good audience. From the very moment RACHELLE picked up the guitar, there began little murmurs and snickers in pockets of the audience which quickly grew into full-blown conversations about WHAT, I couldn’t tell you, ‘cause I was trying to LISTEN TO THE SONGS. I really hoped that RACHELLE couldn’t hear what was going on in the audience, but since her guitar playing was the only accompaniment, I doubt it. She rallied anyway and the songs were wonderful. The only downside to going to live concerts is having to endure the knucklehead next to you who somehow has the opinion that just because they bought a ticket, that entitles them to SING ALONG and, I’m sorry, but I paid to hear RACHELLE sing ALL BY HERSELF! (And the “sistah” on my right was as tone deaf as William Hung). But again, I digress… sort of. What was worse than the “sing-alongers” were the people that wanted to “diss” something new WITHOUT HEARING IT FIRST! I know I’m preaching to the choir here, so to speak, but you know, you just don’t know what you’re gonna like or not gonna like until you hear it. Anyway…

After “Courage To Care,” RACHELLE got the wrap-it-up warning sign from offstage and asked LEDISI and RAHSAAN to join her. Once they did, she started a vamp on guitar and they made up song on the spot. There was a chuckle-inducing moment there when LEDISI and RACHELLE got into a harmony groove and RACHELLE turned to find RAHSAAN “off in another world,” sitting with his back to the audience on the B3 bench behind Sundra and she pulled him by the arm back to center stage.

RACHELLE asked Sundra to stay at the B3 and checked offstage for her remaining time. Somebody in the audience yelled out “Bye Bye Blackbird!” so she jumped into a quick a’capella version of “Blackbird” including a scat chorus, then made her way back to the grand piano for “Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This.” She sang both parts of the duet again as she had done at Blues Alley and it was a perfect end to another great RACHELLE FERRELL performance.

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